Since 2022, AI tools have exploded in popularity and have been popping up in nearly every industry and vertical. The possibilities seem endless, but also overwhelming. With so many AI tools and promises of ‘increased productivity’ it can be hard to figure out and keep track of which ones are actually useful and helpful to you. Regardless, as a designer I’m all in on AI and in this post I’ll focus on sharing my ‘cheatcodes’ and highlighting the best AI design tools in the game right now.
You might be thinking “why should I use AI software if I know how to do my job? And for the things I don’t know why don’t I just learn the skills and come back to the project?” I’m here to tell you, it’s not about that. Like with any other software or service, AI is just a tool. It’s not here to replace your job as a designer, but to actually help you do it better and faster! The analogy I like to think of is regarding planes and pilots. Over time planes and flight software have advanced so much that nowadays people say “Planes basically fly themselves”. Let’s say for a moment that that’s true, even so we still have pilots and a full staff on every flight. That’s how I see designers and AI in the future. On the surface people in a company may think “The design system basically runs itself”, but behind the scenes are designers equipped with the knowledge and tools to lead design and development in such a way where it seems almost effortless on their part.
I see a world where we can say goodbye to mundane tasks and repetitive design routines. Let’s say hello to a world where AI collaborates with your imagination, enhancing your skills and igniting your artistic spark. Whether you're a seasoned graphic designer, a UI/UX wizard, a web design virtuoso, or just dipping your toes into the design universe, AI design tools can help you soar to new heights.
Anyways, lets get back on track and dial in on the reason you’re here, the ‘cheatcodes’!
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top 10 AI-powered tools that are transforming the design industry, allowing you to work smarter and achieve remarkable results. These tools will transform your workflow, captivate your audience, and push your designs to new levels. From crafting custom color palettes that resonate with your audience to building web apps that seem to come alive, these AI tools can be your creative companions on that colorful journey.
ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI's GPT architecture, is an extraordinary AI language model that can revolutionize a designer's day-to-day work. This versatile tool acts as your AI-powered assistant, helping you with various design-related tasks. Although it doesn’t seem like a designer tool on the surface, from generating engaging copy for marketing materials to crafting compelling product descriptions, ChatGPT streamlines content creation and provides creative ideas to kickstart your projects. Because it’s natural language processing capabilities are so advanced, designers can interact with ChatGPT as if they were conversing with a knowledgeable design collaborator, seeking insights, brainstorming ideas, and ideating in a breeze.
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Adobe Sensei is an AI-powered feature integrated into Adobe's Creative Cloud suite. This intelligent tool analyzes your design preferences and offers personalized recommendations. From automated photo retouching to intelligent object removal, Adobe Sensei streamlines repetitive tasks and enhances your design process, giving you more time to focus on refining your artistic vision. Depending on how you use Adobe in your company, it can also provide AI generated business intelligence and predictions which can be used to help pitch creative decisions and directions. In the past year Adobe has been working to incorporate Sensei directly within their Creative Cloud apps in the form of Adobe Firefly where you can take specific action like asking it to retouch a photo, rewrite copy, remove objects from the background of an image, and even change entire photos to have different backgrounds and environments.
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Midjourney is an innovative AI-powered design tool that elevates the content creation process to a new level. With the ability to generate custom images and illustrations based on user input, this platform harnesses the power of machine learning algorithms to understand your preferences and request to bring your unique images to life. Whether you're a content creator, marketer, or designer, Midjourney offers an unrivaled functionality that allows you to create bespoke visuals and graphics with unmatched speed and ease. Simply describe the visual you want generated, and boom you have it. Dont like it? Simply specify your changes via text and regenerate your updated output.
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DALL-E 2, another AI language model developed by OpenAI, is a groundbreaking tool that can profoundly impact designers' day-to-day work. Just like MidJourney, this cutting-edge system can generate images from text prompts, enabling designers to bring their wildest ideas to life. By describing the design concept, color scheme, or even a specific visual element, DALL-E 2 can create unique and original visual representations, inspiring designers and sparking their creativity. From envisioning new artwork to conceptualizing product designs, DALL-E 2 opens a world of possibilities for designers seeking fresh and innovative perspectives.
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Uizard is another exceptional AI-powered tool that enables designers to generate web app designs incredibly fast, literally seconds. This cutting-edge platform utilizes AI algorithms to transform rough sketches and wireframes into fully functional design prototypes. By simply drawing on paper or using digital tools, Uizard's AI comprehends your ideas and converts them into designs with the option to add interactions and animations as well, saving you significant time and effort during the design process. Whether you're a solo designer or working with a team, Uizard streamlines the creation of mockups and prototypes, empowering you to focus on refining your vision and delivering exceptional user experiences.
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Looka Logo Maker is an innovative AI tool designed to simplify logo design for designers and businesses alike. Looka enables designers to create professional-grade logos effortlessly. With its vast library of design elements and fonts, Looka offers an array of options for customization, allowing designers to explore and experiment with various logo concepts swiftly. They do this by presenting users with a selection of pre-made assets to choose from so that the software can identify your design preferences. Once you answer their initial wizard you will be presented with multiple generated logo options to choose from that you can also edit as you see fit. Whether you need a logo for a brand identity or a client project, Looka’s AI capabilities streamline the design process, ensuring you produce stunning logos that leave a lasting impression. You can use Looka as a starting point, or to fully realize a new logo.
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Khroma is an AI-powered color tool that empowers designers to explore unique color combinations effortlessly. The tool uses AI algorithms to analyze millions of images and generate stunning, harmonious color palettes tailored to your specific design project. Whether you're designing a brand logo, creating a website, or working on a marketing campaign, Khroma can help you find the perfect color palette(s) that evoke the right emotions and connect with your target audience. You can also manually adjust the generated palettes as you see fit to make sure it fits your specific use case.
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Fontjoy is a game-changer for designers looking to perfect their typography. With its advanced AI algorithms, Fontjoy analyzes your design preferences and generates unique font pairings that complement your project flawlessly. Whether you need fonts for a website, a logo, or a print design, Fontjoy's curated combinations can save you countless hours of trial and error, ensuring your typography always stands out and enhances your overall design vision.
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Google's Autodraw is a game-changing AI tool that caters to designers of all skill levels, even non-designers. This intuitive tool uses machine learning algorithms to recognize your rough sketches and doodles and then suggests professional-quality icons and symbols that match your drawings. Whether you're designing a quick mockup or brainstorming ideas on a digital canvas, Autodraw's predictive capabilities speed up the design process and provide you with polished visuals, giving your creations a polished and cohesive look. This app is perfect for people looking to create a high quality mockup of really anything in just a short amount of time.
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Fotor is an exceptional AI-powered tool that can generate a variety of creative assets on the fly. One of Fotor's standout features is its AI 3D Model Generator, which revolutionizes how designers approach graphic design. Fotor can transform text inputs and 2D images into stunning 3D models with ease. Whether you're creating visuals for marketing materials, social media posts, or presentations, Fotor's AI 3D Model Generator empowers designers to elevate their designs, adding depth and dimension to their projects effortlessly. With Fotor's AI capabilities, designers can get sophisticated results that used to require extensive 3D design expertise in a fraction of the time. Plus, 3D is all the rage nowadays!
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With these 10 AI-powered tools at your disposal, the possibilities for design creativity are boundless. From concept ideation to execution, these innovative technologies can streamline the creative process, elevate your projects, and help you achieve remarkable results almost effortlessly. Embrace the power of AI in your design journey and witness your imagination and productivity soar to new heights.
Written by
Zahr Lyttle